Letters to the sports editor: Boise State and Idaho Vandals football

I’m a Boise native whose family has been in this area for many generations. Also, I’m a Duck. A number of Capital High graduates of the class of ’70 are proud Vandals and don’t feel comfortable criticizing the Broncos they live and work with.

I speak for some of them. I’m going to use the same time-honored method honed by the Idaho Statesman and its current sage, Dave Southorn. The last few years after the first BSU loss, the “What if?” game begins on how the Broncos can achieve a New Year’s Six bowl game.

After a couple weeks of that, Dave starts speculating on the possibility of making a Power Five bowl game. I don’t know where the Cactus Bowl shakes out in that mix, since I’ve never heard of it, but really though, BSU should be facing Idaho in the Potato Bowl.

Really? What about the prior losing seasons under Petrino? There were too many to count.

He also called Petrino’s coaching staff “the world’s best.” Joking, right? Nick Saban, Urban Meyer or Chris Petersen would be laughing if they read that letter. I know I was.

However, I do congratulate the Vandals, who finally had a decent, but not great, winning season at 8-4, albeit playing in the mighty Sun Belt Conference. Perhaps it would be wiser to wait a few years of having consecutive winning seasons before claiming Petrino a “hot item.”

In 2018, Petrino’s Vandals will try to repeat this winning year in the lower-division Big Sky Conference. What a great challenge for a “hot coach.”

If he is so hot, how come his name has not even been mentioned in coaching job openings at Houston, LSU, Oregon or any others? Apparently, other respected universities do not see him as a “hot item.”